Tag: soldier

KFAR AZA, Israel – In some ways, Israel’s latest confrontation with Hamas looks like past conflicts in the Gaza Strip. Operation Pillar of Defense has left some key Hamas leaders dead, depleted weapons supplies and hit more than 1,000 targets in Gaza.

For many Israelis, the Presidential election in America had a special urgency because of the increasing nuclear threat from Iran, and the hope that Romney would take a more militant stance than Obama. I wrote a short story on the tragedy of looking to America for our salvation, which appears in my award-winner collection of short stories, “Days of Mashiach,” which was translated and published in France this year by a non-Jewish publisher, with reviewers comparing me to Voltaire and the famous fable writer, Jean de la Fontaine. Big deal. Anyway, enjoy the story, and for readers who value true Jewish literature, I invite you to check out some of my other books at Amazon.

YIshai is joined by soldier, artist, father, and activist Marc Prowisor. Prowisor, who is also the director of security projects the One Israel Fund, talks with Yishai about a party held by Arabs, to celebrate deceased leader Yasser Arafat held near the Mount of Olives studio. They also discuss what is going on among Arabs inside of Israel.

On Tuesday, soldiers in the IDF Kfir brigade sent a letter to the office of Chief of Staff Benny Gantz complaining about discrimination between soldiers serving in the Haredi Netzach Yehuda battalion and other soldiers in the brigade, Walla reports. According to the soldiers’ claims it appears that recently soldiers serving in the Haredi battalion each received a grant of $5,000 from an American philanthropist.

A combat soldier in the Kfir Infantry Brigade, Sgt. Lee Rosenthal, is also one of the best bridge players worldwide. Just last week the Israeli bridge team placed second in the world bridge championship for competitors under the age 21 held in Taicang, China a week ago. The skillful players overcame teams from China, Italy and dozens of other countries, defeated only by the Dutch team by a single point. Among the team members are two IDF soldiers, completing their full service.

Dov Lerner, former ZOA president at the University of Maryland and current Lone Soldier in the IDF: “It is very different making the case for Israel on campuses than actually sitting on the border with a gun guarding the country," Lerner said. "Having done both, I know that they are both extremely necessary.”

It’s been more than five years since I began writing about my oldest son’s journey into the army. At first, I wrote to calm myself and keep from sharing my greatest fears with him. I called the blog A Soldier’s Mother and watched him enter the army.

For anyone who is sick of the lies and hypocrisy - be it in Israel or the world - and really wants to work for change, it's not enough to simply stand on the street corner and shout the truth. How something is said or how someone looks while performing an act frequently has more impact than anything else in the eyes and ears of the viewer.

An officer close to the issue told the Jewish Press: "It is not that we turned away 100 soldiers - had they come to us we would have taken them anyway. But we were told to stop our Haredi outreach efforts which would have netted more recruits. The Tal Law is the big story though. If a new law does not pass we will be in a position to draft 60,000 Haredi soldiers in August."

Every Friday night at the Shabbat table, Jewish men display their hakarat hatov for their particular "woman of valor", by singing an ode to her that describes in great detail her many meritorious attributes and activities.